Dear GBA members,
We hope this letter finds you well. We are pleased to share with you some of the ongoing activities and achievements of GBA.
We would like to recap the outcome of our offsite meeting, where we defined our key strategy. We have identified three main pillars of our work for this year:
1/ Transforming for Excellence – The strengthening of our office, the “backbone” of the GBA, is very important to us. We plan to hire an Executive Director, enlarge our office space, and invest in new communication tools, such as CRM and emailing software to serve our members better.
2/ Substance Driven Business Content – The quality of our events will be further improved, and we plan to add more events with business focus for a wide range of company backgrounds. We will timely communicate all upcoming event formats, ensuring sufficient time in the planning process of our members.
3/ Promotion of GBA Topics – We will focus on the specific needs of our GBA members and will work with you on solving issues you are facing.
We are pleased to report that we made very good progress in the last 3 months to reach each of the set targets.
Firstly, we are happy to announce that we have started the search for an executive director who will lead our association and represent our interests to the relevant stakeholders. We have received many applications and we are in the process of shortlisting and interviewing the candidates. We hope to finalize the selection by the end of June and introduce the new executive director to you soon.
In order to serve you even better, Mr. Ingo Brandenburg, Managing Director cum Country Head of Pharmaceuticals Division of Bayer Vietnam has been invited into the board as non-voting board member effective from 1st March 2023 according to GBA statutes article 9.6 and article 9.12 here>>> to support the GBA board and its members in the work. Mr. Brandenburg will join our focus group events and the start-up competition GBA Business Challenge. (Click here>>> to see his bio)
Secondly, we are excited to inform you that we are expanding our office space near the AHK office to accommodate our growth. The new office will provide us with more facilities and resources to serve you better and enhance our visibility and credibility. We expect to move into the new office by August and we will invite you to join us for a housewarming party.
Thirdly, we are delighted to reveal that we are launching a new CRM system called “GlueUp” this year, which will improve our services and communication with you. GlueUp is a cloud-based platform that will enable us to manage our membership database, events, newsletters, surveys, invoices and more in a more efficient and user-friendly way. You will also be able to access your own account on GlueUp and update your profile, register for events, pay fees, download receipts, and interact with other members. We will provide you with more details and instructions on how to use GlueUp in the coming weeks.
Finally, we are proud to report that we have attended several high-level meetings with the government authorities in the past months, such as the chairman of HCMC, the ITPC meeting (refer here>>> to the article) and our most recent meeting in Hanoi with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (refer here>>> to the article). We have voiced your concerns and suggestions on various issues affecting your business operations and the local investment environment, such as work permits, residence card issues, complicated administrative procedures, etc. We have received positive feedback and recognition from the government officials, and we will continue to engage with them on a regular basis.
These are some of the highlights of our work in the first three months of this year. We have many more plans and projects in the pipeline that we will share with you in due course. We appreciate your trust and support in GBA, and we look forward to working with you closely in the future.
Sincerely Yours,
Elmar Dutt & Torben Minko
Co-Chairmen of the Board
German Business Association